Thundra! Femizon from the Future Appreciation (2019)

[MajorHoy]

First Appearance:
Fantastic Four #129 (December 1972)



and from
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol. 1 No. 11 (November 1983

[MajorHoy]

a couple more Marvel Handbook entries for Thundra:

from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition Vol. 2 No. 13 (December 1986)


from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #13 (December 1991)

[Phoenixx9]

I love Thundra, the Femizon! Her and Valkyrie were Marvel's first 2 super-strong female characters and 2 of my favorites!

An interesting note from the pics above: a few were redone to show characters that were not there in the original drawings! The one of "Thundra" punching "Ms Marvel" through the wall should be Ms Marvel punching a female Doctor Spectrum. The other one with Thundra smashing Sub-Mariner should be the Thing.

[Immortal Hulk]

I love her! Most badass of the female powerhouses!

[kilderkin]

One of my favourite ever characters, would love to see more of her

The image of her belting the thing and knocking him back was astounding at that time

Fantastic

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Fantastic Four #148 Jul 1974
"War on the Thirty-Sixth Floor!" Guest-starring Thundra.
Returning to the Baxter Building following the revelation that Sue is willingly staying with Namor,
the downtrodden Fantastic Four soon find that they are not alone in the Baxter Building.
Reed is attacked first by the Sandman who is hiding out in Reed's lab.
Freeing the rest of the FF who were trapped in an elevator, they begin searching
out the rest of their headquarters for the other members of the Frightful Four.

The Sandman reunites with the Wizard and Trapster and they begin their hunt for each of the members of the Fantastic Four.
The Trapster finds the Human Torch first and manages to immobilize him with his super-paste.
The Wizard tracks down both Reed and Medusa and is able to defeat them by placing anti-gravity discs on their backs.
Finally, the Thing is attacked by the Sandman. However he avoids defeat when their fight is interrupted by Thundra,

who has come to make good her previous warning to her former teammates in the Frightful Four about attacking the Fantastic Four ever again.

Meanwhile, Johnny manages to break free of the Trapster's paste-trap and easily defeats his old foe.
He then finds the Wizard and uses the Trapster's paste gun to immobilize him.
Freeing Reed and Medusa, the FF reunite and contain the villains they have defeated.

When Reed asks Thundra how she knew they were in trouble, the possible answer is interrupted when they all become
aware that Namor has risen sea monsters from the sea and intends to renew his aggressions towards the surface world.

Script by Gerry Conway. Pencils by Rich Buckler. Inks by Joe Sinnott.

[Phoenixx9]

Those stories and artwork were "Fantastic"!

[jetengine]

Thundras a weird one.

Great character design, very simple. Motivations a tad weak. Her backstory on the otherhand is very dated though and has a lot of political ugliness to it. Does she manage to reintegrate society in the future when she's empress or is it still a Man hating matriarchy ?

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Marvel Two in One #53 Jul 1979
"The Pegasus Project Part 1: The Inner War!" Guest-starring Quasar. Thundra and Deathlok cameos.
Feeling guilty that he has neglected his adopted "son" Wundarr, the Thing decides to pay a visit to Project Pegasus
to see if the young man has recovered from his coma since being exposed to the energies of the Cosmic Cube.
After passing the security screening he is granted access and given a priority access card.
When he meets Quasar, the new chief of security, Ben mistakes him for the Crusader --
an insane Uranian super-hero which the Fantastic Four previously battled and thought dead.
After a brief scuffle, Quasar reveals that he is really Wendel Vaughn, whose father had
recovered the Crusader's Quantum Bands following his death and gave them over to his son.
With the misunderstanding cleared up, Quasar takes Ben to see Wundarr.
Along the way, Ben runs into Thomas Lightner, who seems innocent enough but gives Ben the creeps.
For good reason, however, because after the two heroes leave Lightner's presence, he calls in his mysterious employer
and tells his master at an organization called Nth Command to initiate the next phase of a fiendish plot.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, Thundra is walking the streets

when she runs into a musclebound man threatening wrestling promoter Herkimer J. Oglethorpe. Easily beating the ruffian,

Oglethorpe decides to offer her a career in the wrestling league which he promotes for.

Back at Project Pegasus, Quasar takes Thing to Wundarr's room and explains that since the man-child had been exposed
to the Cosmic Cube he's been a living sponge, absorbing energies in his vicinity, even the Thing's own strength.
Trying to rouse the boy doesn't work and so the two decide to retire for the night to check on the boys status in the morning.
As they try to rest, Lightner knocks out some guards and allows Nth Command's operative: The cyborg Deathlok entry into the compound.

Unable to sleep, the Thing decides to pace around the compound. Lost in thought he is unaware that
he is walking right into the waiting aim of Deathlok who is programmed to kill anyone who gets in his way.

Story by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Art by John Byrne and Joe Sinnot.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I love Thundra, the Femizon! Her and Valkyrie were Marvel's first 2 super-strong female characters and 2 of my favorites!

I didn't realize this until you pointed it out they precede the 1980 Savage She-Hulk!

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Fantastic Four #149 Aug 1974
"To Love, Honor, and Destroy!" Guest-starring Thundra.
As Namor, Sue Richards, and an Atlantean warrior stand on the back of a giant sea monster,
Namor angrily declares that he will invade the surface world.
He wants revenge for the evil that Reed Richards has done to Sue and her son, he continues.
Ben Grimm watches the Sub-Mariner and his monsters swim upriver, and he declares that Namor "means business."
Reed is furious, for not only has Namor stolen his wife, he is flaunting it in Reed's face.

Medusa suggests that perhaps there is some other explanation for Namor's actions, but Reed tells her to stay out of his affairs.
Johnny and Ben decide to take Reed's side against Namor, but Medusa says that
something is bothering her about the way Namor is acting, and she walks away.

Soon Reed, Ben, Johnny, and Thundra take the Fantasticar and head off to battle Namor.
At the same time, Namor commands the Atlantean warrior to drive the sea monster onto the shore.
As the lumbering creature crushes a dock, a group of riot control police opens fire.
Just as Sue erects a force field to protect herself and Namor from the bullets.
The Fantasticar flies up and Reed stretches out toward Namor, angrily declaring
that he is still Sue's husband and will not let anyone take her from him.
Namor retorts that Reed lost Sue when he put Franklin into a coma.
Then, as another sea monster rises behind him. Namor punches Reed and nearly knocks him out of the Fantasticar.

Ben pulls Reed back into the vehicle, but Namor continues his tirade, and Thundra points out Namor's advancing sea beasts.
Then the Torch takes his turn at Namor, but Namor quickly knocks him into the water.
Sue asks Johnny not to anger Namor, because she does not want Johnny hurt,
but Namor leaps into the harbor and catapults Johnny out of the water with a double-fisted punch.

Thundra snags him with her chain and she and Reed pull him into the Fantasticar.
Then Ben starts to pummel Namor and Namor falls onto the back of his sea beast.
Now Sue is alarmed that Namor might be injured, so she erects a
force-field barrier in front of the Fantasticar, and the vehicle smashes to bits.
Thundra, Reed, Ben, and Johnny fall into the water, and Namor declares that he and Sue have defeated the Fantastic Four.

As Ben bobs in the water, he recalls how the Fantastic Four first met the Sub-Mariner,
when Johnny found him in a flophouse with his memory gone.
Johnny then dropped him into the Atlantic Ocean, and his memory was restored.
Namor soon discovered that a catastrophe had befallen his people, and he blamed mankind.
But when Namor returned for his revenge, he met Sue Storm and fell in love with her.
When Sue turned him down he declared war on the human race
and used his Proteus Horn to summon a huge monster to devastate New York.
Fortunately, Ben was able to carry an atomic bomb into the creature's belly, and the explosion killed it.
Namor halted his battle, but he promised to return at a later date and win.

As Ben concludes his reminiscence, he notes that Namor tried to invade the surface world
a number of times, but each time he was stopped by the Fantastic Four.
Namor then commands his sea creatures, including the child of Giganto—the creature
that Ben, killed with the bomb—to destroy the surface world.
To Ben, it seems as if Namor has gone berserk and he swims to the shore and starts hauling the creatures back into the river.
Then Namor leaps onto the dock, and Thundra challenges him to battle.
Reed warns that Namor is too powerful for her, but she replies that she fears no male.
Then she and Namor collide, wrecking the dock with the force of their impact, and Namor hurls her away.
Meanwhile, the Thing is being strangled by the tentacles of a sea beast, but he flexes his muscles and tears the creatures away.

The Atlantean warrior then informs Sue that Ben is approaching, so she tells Ben that she never meant to hurt anyone.
As Ben talks to Sue, Thundra charges Namor, saying that all men are cruel: but Namor, in coming between two lovers, is the cruelest of all.
Sue asks Ben to try to convince Reed that further battle is useless because Namor will not rest until they
have all surrendered or been destroyed but Ben says that since Namor is her sweetheart, she should call him off.

He tells her that she has put Reed through enough already without asking him to
surrender to the person who has robbed him of everything that makes life worth living.
Sue does not believe Reed loves her, but Ben says he does. Reed was always so distant, muses Sue,
yet the look on Reed's face as he was battling Namor makes her think she might be wrong after all.

Thundra then smashes Namor into a wall, but as she advances toward him, Reed tells her to stop.
He cannot let her carry his fight any longer, he says, because battling the Sub-Mariner is his responsibility.
Ben tells Sue to ponder Reed's words, and after some agonizing soul-searching, Sue realizes that she loves Reed and always has loved him.
Then she runs to Namor and Reed and tells them to stop battling because she was wrong to idealize love excessively.
When her relationship with Reed did not meet her expectations, she continues, she thought their love was over.
Namor held out the offer of romantic love to her once, so she went back to him when he offered it again.

Then Sue embraces Reed. Ben then informs Namor that he is not wanted here anymore.
Surprisingly enough, Namor flies back to his sea monsters, saying that he will gladly leave.
As he lands on his sea beast, he tells the warrior that Project Revival was a complete success.
None of the Fantastic Four suspected that the whole thing was an act and that he never intended to actually invade the surface world.
Then the warrior removes his cowl and reveals himself as Triton, the Inhuman.
He remarks that Black Bolt will be pleased that they have brought their friends together, even if they had to use a little deception.
Then he radios the Baxter Building to tell Medusa of their success, and she comments that although Namor may be
persona non grata with the Fantastic Four until they are told the truth, in this case, the end seems to justify the means.

Script by Gerry Conway. Art by Rich Buckler (breakdowns) and Joe Sinnott (finishes).

[Silvermoth]

I love Thundra! They need to use her more as Susan storm’s BFF

[Phoenixx9]

I didn't realize this until you pointed it out they precede the 1980 Savage She-Hulk!

Yes, indeed!

Valkyrie, Thundra, then later Ms Marvel all preceeded She-Hulk (1980).

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I totally forgot about the comicbook character Ms. Marvel!

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Marvel Two in One #54 Aug 1979
"The Pegasus Project Part 2: Blood and Bionics!" Guest-starring Deathlok and Quasar. Thundra cameo.
The Thing is wandering the Project Pegasus complex when he is attacked by the Nth Command's agent, the cyborg known as Deathlok.
The cyborg attacks Ben with lethal force and manages to injure his arm.
When Ben tries to appeal to Luther Manning, the cyborg informs Ben that it has been culled of all it's organic components
and is run completely by an artificial intelligence before resuming it's brutal assault on the Thing.
When Quasar arrives with Pegasus security, Deathlok flees the scene.
With Ben given the care of Pegasus medical staff, Quasar goes after Deathlok to figure out what the cyborg is up to.

The damaged cyborg meanwhile has traveled deep into the complex and has
begun setting up a Nth Projector in the Radioactive Disposal Section of the facility.
Quasar manages to track Deathlok there and resumes his attack unaware of what Deathlok was doing in this area.
During the fight, the cyborg suffers severe damage to its body, even more so
when Pegasus security arrives along with a medically treated Ben Grimm.
When Quasar hears that Deathlok has activated a self-destruct device he uses
his Quantum Bands to destroy it's body, leaving its head intact for questioning.
However, the cyborg has forseen this possibility and causes it's head to self-destruct
leaving nothing behind to determine the cause of Deathlok's attack on the facility.

While back in New York City, Thundra has begun practicing for her new career as a female wrestler for Oglethorpe,
and is pitted against a group of female wrestlers known as the Grapplers (Poundcakes, Screaming Mimi, Letha and Titania)

all of whom Thundra manages to defeat easily.

Back at Pegasus, Thomas Lightener has ventured down into the Radioactive
Disposal section to check and see if the Nth Projector had been discovered.
Finding it unmolested, he calls his leader at Nth Command who demands that Lightner finish constructing the device himself
and to initiate their contingancy plan that they had organized in the event that Deathlok had failed in it's mission.

As Ben and Quasar greet Bill Foster who has come to bring the villain Atom Smasher into the Project's custody for study
Lightner sneaks into the cell of another radioactive menace: Nuklo, the mutant son of the Whizzer and Miss America.
He awakens the child like creature and opens up his cell in the hopes that the mutant
will cause enough destruction around the compound for him to finish his plan.

Story by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Art by John Byrne and Joe Sinnot.